A silver halide photographic light sensitive material is generally comprised of a support made of a sheet of glass, paper or plastic-coated paper coated thereon with various combinations of photographic component layers such as light sensitive silver halide emulsion layers and, if required, an interlayer, a protective layer, a backing layer, an antihalation layer and an antistatic layer. Such a photographic light sensitive material as mentioned above is often unfavorably affected, for example, in the preparation steps such as the coating, drying and processing steps, in the portions where the light sensitive material is brought into contact with various equipment, machines and cameras when the light sensitive material is wound up, rewound or transported in the courses of carrying out the photographing, developing, printing and projecting steps, or the light sensitive materials are brought into frictional contact with each other, such as the frictional contact of the light sensitive surfaces of the light sensitive materials with the backing surfaces thereof. The above-mentioned unfavorable influences include, for example, a scratch or abrasion produced on the surfaces of a light sensitive material, and the driven property deterioration of a light sensitive material produced in the equipment or mechanisms used in the courses of making exposures or treating the light sensitive material.
Various proposals have so far been made for the methods of preparing photographic light sensitive materials improved in the physical properties thereof by enhancing the scratch resistance of the photographic component layers of the light sensitive materials or by reducing the sliding friction so as to make freely movable a film cassette and the camera- or printing-gates such as a camera gate and a projector gate, without damaging any photographic component layers. The known examples of the above-mentioned proposals include; a method such as described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,042,522 in which the sliding ability is provided to a photographic film by containing both dimethyl silicone and a specific surfactant at the same time in the photographic emulsion layer or the protective layer thereof; another method such as described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,080,317 in which a sliding ability is provided to a photographic film by coating a mixture of dimethyl silicone and diphenyl silicone on the back surface of the film; a further method such as described in U.S. Pat. No. 1,143,118 in which a sliding ability is provided to a photographic film by containing methyl-phenyl silicone with the triphenyl-blocked terminal in a protective layer; and a still further method such as described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,489,567 in which a photographic light-sensitive material having a sliding ability and an antiadhesion property is provided by containing both lower dialkyl silicone and a .beta.-alanine type surfactant in the photographic emulsion layers or other hydrophilic colloidal layers thereof.
However, when trying to improve the physical properties of a photographic light sensitive material in these known methods, any adhesiveness of surface has not been completely removed, though the sliding ability and other properties may be improved to some extent.
When an excellent sliding ability is to be provided, a large amount of silicone must be used, whereby defects may be induced, for example, the coating characteristics may be affected in the course of preparing a photographic light sensitive material or a liquid splattering may be produced to interfere with development, because the silicone used therein has a little effect of providing a sliding ability.
For remedying the above-mentioned defects, there are a method in which alkyl polysiloxane having a polyoxyalkylene chain is used as mentioned in, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,047,958 and another method in which liquid organopolysiloxane having an alkyl group having not less than 5 carbon atoms is used as mentioned in, for example, Japanese Patent (hereinafter referred to as JP) Examined Publication No. 53-292/1978. However, when the above-mentioned methods are applied to a backing layer in particular, there may be some instances where silicone added thereto may affect a photographic emulsion when the emulsion is coated, so that various coating characteristics may be spoiled, though these methods may display a considerable effect to improve some kind of the defects. There have also been some instances where the running properties of a processed film have been deteriorated on a transport roller or in a camera. As for the methods for avoiding the above-mentioned defects, a method is disclosed in, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,404,276, in which a cross-linked silicone is used.
However, when the above-mentioned physical properties are tried to improve in the above-mentioned methods, any effects have not satisfactorily been displayed for improving the coating characteristics, though the sliding property may be maintained after completing a development.
JP Examined Publication Nos. 60-140341/1985 and 2-153344/1990 disclose the methods in which the partially changed structures of organosiloxane were used. Even in these methods, there is some limitation to silicones to improve the sliding property. Recently, the transport rates of an exposure equipment and the processing rates of an automatic processor have been getting far increased and, therefore, the improvements of the sliding property have been further required.
Particularly in light sensitive materials for photomechanical use, the influences of any scratches are emphasized, because theese light sensitive materials are hard in contrast.
In the light sensitive materials for photomechanical use, on the other hand, JP Publication Open to Public Inspection (hereinafter referred to as JP OPI Publication) No. 58-190949/1983, for example, discloses a technique in which a surfactant comprising polyalkylene oxide is used as an emulsion contrast increasing agent when using a stable developer containing a preservative such as sodium sulfite. However, when making combination use of the polyalkylene oxide and various matting agents such as the fine particles of silica or macromolecules, a large number of pin-holes are produced on the edges of a printing light sensitive material so that the print quality may seriously be spoiled.
For the measure to counter a pin-hole production, the polyalkylene oxides different from the above-mentioned have been developed, such as those described in JP OPI Publication No. 62-6250/1987. The pin-hole trouble was eliminated thereby, but the other problems still remain unsolved, namely, the problems of spoiling degradation in a contrast and an image sharpness. For solving the problems, it has been demanded for a protective layer having a quite different surface matting agent from any conventional matting agents.